Canadian Grand Prix: Qualifying

The Honda Racing F1 Team’s Jenson Button will start tomorrow’s 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix from the 4th row of the grid after posting the 8th fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session. His team-mate Rubens Barrichello will line-up right behind him in 9th position.

It was a nail-biting session which saw five of the top six cars separated by just a tenth of a second at the end of the final knock-out sector. Both Rubens and Jenson were happy that they got the most from their RA106 race cars today and now set their sights on the team’s target of a two-car points finish in tomorrow’s race.

Jenson Button		Rubens Barrichello

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Free Practice 3 Position: 8th
Qualifying
Session 1 16th
Session 2 9th
Session 3 - Final Position: 9th Lap Time: 1:16.912
"We were on the borderline for the first qualifying session as I almost got put out of it by Rosberg holding me up. Apart from that, our qualifying hour ran smoothly enough. In the last sector of my final lap, I went a little wide and ran on the marbles, which cost me a bit of time. But we could only have improved to eighth at the most with the car we have so I'm satisfied with my position. We got as much as we could out of the car today. I hope we can achieve our target of points tomorrow."

JENSON BUTTON
Free Practice 3 Position: 12th
Qualifying
Session 1 14th
Session 2 10th
Session 3 - Final Position: 8th Lap Time: 1:16.608
"I'm pretty happy with our qualifying position today. 8th is obviously not where we want to be but it’s a solid performance and we have both cars in the top ten. We’ll just have to see what happens tomorrow. It'll be an interesting race as I think the Michelin tyres will work well and we're positive about our race pace. We've only used one set of new tyres in Qualifying so we've saved an extra set for the race. I'm not going to talk our prospects up too much though. Our aim is to get both cars in the points and that would be a good result for us right now."

GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR
"Qualifying went relatively well for us and it was certainly full of tension. In Q1 Rubens had traffic on his fast laps and only just made it through the second round. In Q2 both Jenson and Rubens made it into the top ten in the dying seconds of the session. Overall we are roughly where we expected to be before qualifying started and both car and engine are running well. We will put up a good fight tomorrow and try to move up the field."

The bright sunshine brought a change of fortune for the SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM today. The team completed itsrace day preparations without any issues this morning and is now ready to compete in its first Canadian Grand Prix inthe glorious setting of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit on Île Notre Dame tomorrow.

Takuma Sato		Franck Montagny

TAKUMA SATO
FP3 Position 20 Fastest Lap Time 1:18.926
QUALIFYING Grid Position 21 Fastest Lap Time 1:19.088
"This morning’s practice session went well, however I am a little bit disappointed with my lap times from the Qualifying session compared to our rivals as I was expecting to be closer to their times this weekend. Having said that, I think that we did everything we could in our preparation for tomorrow and I believe that I have a good set-up for the race, so I am looking forward to it."

FRANCK MONTAGNY
FP3 Position 21 Fastest Lap Time 1:19.160
QUALIFYING Grid Position 22 Fastest Lap Time 1:19.152
"I am quite happy with our results today. We have come a long way with the car since yesterday and I am quite happy with the set-up we have found. It is not going to be easy for us again tomorrow, but I like this circuit and the car is quite nice to drive here, a bit slow, but at least it is not so hard to keep the car on the track, so I think it will be a fun race."

AGURI SUZUKI, TEAM PRINCIPAL
"The team has done a very good job today. The cars’ performance is low and we are not happy to be two seconds off the nearest car’s pace, but on the positive side we did not encounter any problems and we completed our planned race preparations. The team is working extremely well together and growing stronger with every race, so I am happy about that and hope that we can achieve another two-car finish tomorrow."